WESTERN PRODUCER — There’s an old saying that everything old is new again. When it comes to automotive and machinery design, that seems to be true in spades.
Diesel-electric equipment has been in use for decades, but until recently, that system had fallen out of favour with many equipment manufacturers, including heavy truck builders.
“It’s weird,” said Chace Barber, CEO of Edison Motors in Merritt, B.C. “In the heavy industrial world, hybrids are very common things since the 1930s. Freight trains are all hybrid diesel-electric, all the Cat mine trucks, LeTourneau loaders from back in the ‘60s. There’s so much diesel-electric out there that it’s weird the trucks didn’t do it.”
Barber’s start-up company plans to change that.
It has designed a hybrid electric drive for heavy trucks that can greatly reduce engine emissions, and it provides operators with other advantages by keeping the engineering simple.
“We’re loggers and started thinking electrical kind of makes sense here,” said Barber. “You go up empty, you come down loaded, you could recapture that power and torque. I just kind of got mad at the way I saw electric vehicles going. There’s so much planned obsolescence. Nothing was being built tough for logging or vocational industries.
“I was talking with my business partner, Eric, about how we’d build a truck, saying I’d do it this way. So we said, let’s just do it then.”
That led to the creation of Edison Motors, which is preparing to launch its hybrid conversion kit business to give new life to existing heavy- and light-duty trucks.
While major manufacturers are offering hybrid passenger vehicle and half-ton trucks, none have focused on larger hybrids.
“My theory for why they (heavy truck manufacturers) don’t do hybrid is because hybrid doesn’t make sense on the highway,” said Barber.
“Running three hours straight on the highway at 100 km/h pulling 80,000 pounds, you don’t need big torque. You can’t take advantage of the regeneration transmission to run efficiently. You may get a five per cent increase in fuel savings by going (hybrid) electric, and that’s not really worth the cost to do the R&D.”
That’s not the case for vocational use like logging, where there are varying high power and torque demands and no recharging stations in sight. It’s a similar work situation to farming.
“I think it makes sense on a farm,” he said. “You can start running additional electrical attachments. Farmers want a good, reliable work truck. Farmers want to be able to work and maintain stuff themselves.
“The whole philosophy there is save some money on fuel, be able to work on it, tinker with it. I think the agricultural world is neglected by big trucks.
“The vocational things, the farmers, the loggers, they want different things out of their trucks.”
Refitting an older truck that uses simpler, generic components, which was standard manufacturing practice by all heavy truck brands a few decades ago, can make on-farm repairs a simpler and less expensive process and create a more environmentally friendly vehicle.
“Generic components, like the old-school turn signals, they’re $40 or $50 if you buy them new,” Barber notes. “Everything in them is just metal, wires, and a little bit of solder. If it wears out, you can fix it.
“The turn signal on a brand new truck is $400 or $500 now. It’s getting stupid. They’re plastic with membrane CANBUS switches you can’t fix or replace.
“If you’ve got a truck with a blown motor or rear ends but a good frame and good body, why buy a whole new truck? You can just upgrade the one you got. That being said, it’s not always the cheapest way.”
Barber says providing an exact quote on a retrofit can be difficult. It depends what an owner wants, and there can be specification differences in heavy vocational trucks.
“For a brand new one, it’s about 20 or 30 per cent more than a mechanical diesel one,” he said. “That’s the easiest way for me to say that, because there’s so much variation in the vocational truck world. For what you’re getting, expect to pay 20 or 30 per cent more, if you want us to build you a brand new one.”
For those wanting to retrofit a light-duty truck, there is a range of options that can change the cost.
“That’s the one that’s hard to give a price on,” he added. “Depending what you want, it could be as low as a third of the cost (of a new truck), depending on how simple you want to go. Some people want to do really fancy things, others just want a basic work truck.”
Edison’s heavy truck conversions use a C9 (9-litre) Caterpillar diesel mated to a generator and an electric drive motor on each axle. That would typically replace a 13- or 15-litre engine and still provide the same or better peak torque.
The C9 runs at a constant 1,700 r.p.m. with a consistent load demand while powering the generator, unlike conventional drivelines that require a range of engine speeds and power demands. That further minimizes emissions.
The light truck conversions use a 3.2-litre C3 Caterpillar engine. It’s also possible to use any type of engine, not just a diesel in the conversion.
“I like diesel, because it’s simple, reliable and everywhere has it,” Barber said. “Propane is a cheap fuel. It burns cleanly, but it doesn’t give you a lot of torque. But with a generator, you don’t need that torque. The generator isn’t trying to power a truck off the line.
“So, you could put a clean propane motor in and still have all the power and torque of an electric.”
Rather than the lithium-ion battery packs used by major automotive EV manufacturers, the Edison conversions use lithium-iron batteries.
“Iron is a little bit heavier, but it’s a lot safer,” said Barber. “But because it’s a hybrid, you’re really not adding that many batteries.”
The company is working with a number of mechanics across Canada and the U.S. that have signed up as installers.
“We’re getting them trained on how to install this,” he said. “We’re hoping to have the kits (available) to the general public in about two years. Then they can take their truck to one of these installers, swap the axles, put the generator on, drop the transmission, put the batteries in and connect everything up.”
Aside from providing conversion kits for existing trucks, Edison has designed and built a complete hybrid truck of its own that can be custom ordered to match a buyer’s specifications.
Edison, which has a website at edisonmotors.ca, is now accepting reservations for conversions. Barber says demand has exceeded his expectations.
He thinks it may be because the major manufacturers haven’t exactly hit on what truck buyers really want, which is the flexibility and advantages of the hybrid design.
“There are heavy orders from Texas, Alberta, the Dakotas, places where people typically hate EVs,” said Barber.
“I’ve talked to a lot of installers in those areas, and they’re not against electric. They’re just against the way it’s being rammed down their throats.
“They don’t like that you can’t work on or service new vehicles. You can’t tow or work with them, but that’s what we need our trucks for. We’re not using our trucks as grocery getters. I just want to do a full day’s work like I do with my normal truck.
“They’re saying the hybrid approach makes sense. Put a generator in it. I’ll burn less fuel with more power and it’ll be a simpler system.”
